Season 2020 – 2021 of the Finnish Goalball League began at the Sport Hall of Leppävaara in Espoo on 3rd – 4th October. The 1st stage of the season was hosted by Old Power, which is the biggest goalball club in the country.
Due the corona virus pandemic this was the first tournament in the Finnish Goalball League since the beginning of March 2020. Below you can read a short recap of the tournament from both series and check out results, standings and goal scorers of the first weekend. The 2nd stage of the season will be played at the Sotunki School in Vantaa on 28th – 29th November.
SM-Serie
You can check out line-ups of the teams in SM-Serie on the season 2020 – 2021 here
There was a very tight and goal rich tournament in SM-Serie on Saturday 3rd October in Espoo. Finally three teams reached for two victories during the day, but O.P. Hurricanes was the winner of the 1st stage by the best goal difference. O.P. Hurricanes had to play without Ehsan Zoveidavi and Petteri Peitso, who missed the 1st stage, but new guys in the team, huge-experienced Jarno Mattila and Sami Mustonen improved their performance throughout the day and took a big response of the team.
A brand new team Aisti Revolution led by Petri Posio was surprising strong at the 1st stage of the season by beating Aisti Sport and Old Power. Old Power missed one of their gunner Jani Vesalainen, especially because of Erkki Miinala had to play with hard sores throughout the tournament, but after all Old Power was able to beat O.P. Hurricanes and Aisti Sport.
Aisti Sport had also big problems with their roster, because their lost Jani Kallunki in the first match for an injury and without any substitutes they had to look for a replacing player to the rest of the tournament. A former O.P. Hurricanes player Tomi Vesalainen became to save the team.
Jarno Mattila was the top scorer of the 1st stage with 23 goals, Petri Posio made 17 and Erkki Miinala 15 goals respectively. After the last match of the day two players from both teams Old Power and Aisti Sport had to leave for a doping control, so it was extremely long day for these athletes.
Results
Saturday 3rd October 2020
Time / Game Number / Home Team / Away Team / Reslult (Half Time)
10.00 1 Aisti Sport – Aisti Revolution 9-14 (3-7)
Scorers / Sport: #8 Honkanen 6, #6 Tihumäki 3
Scorers / Revolution: #7 Posio 7, #2 Montonen 7
10.55 2 Old Power – O.P. Hurricanes 14-10 (4-3)
Scorers / Power: #8 Miinala 10, #5 Viittala 4
Scorers / Hurricanes: #8 Mattila 8, #9 Ylönen 2
13.55 3 Aisti Revolution – Old Power 11-3 (2-0)
Scorers / Revolution: #7 Posio 8, #2 Montonen 3
Scorers / Power: #5 Viittala 1, #6 Eronen 1, #8 Miinala 1
15.45 4 O.P. Hurricanes – Aisti Sport 12-9 (5-5)
Scorers / Hurricanes: #8 Mattila 8, #9 Ylönen 4
Scorers / Sport: #6 Tihumäki 4, #2 Vesalainen 3, #8 Honkanen 2
18.30 5 O.P. Hurricanes – Aisti Revolution 15-6 (7-2)
Scorers / Hurricanes: #9 Ylönen 8, #8 Mattila 7
Scorers / Revolution: #2 Montonen 3, #7 Posio 2, #5 Nyström 1
19.25 6 Old Power – Aisti Sport 9-8 (7-7)
Scorers / Power: #6 Eronen 5, #8 Miinala 4
Scorers / Sport: #6 Tihumäki 3, #8 Honkanen 3, #2 Vesalainen 2
Standings in SM-Serie after the 1st stage
Position / Team / Games / Wins / Ties / Losses / Made-Missed Goals / Goal Difference / Points
- O.P. Hurricanes / 3 / 2 / 0 / 1 / 37-29 / +8 / 6
- Aisti Revolution / 3 / 2 / 0 / 1 / 31-27 / +4 / 6
- Old Power / 3 / 2 / 0 / 1 / 26-29 / -3 / 6
- Aisti Sport / 3 / 0 / 0 / 3 / 26-35 / -9 / 0
Scorers in SM-Serie after the 1st stage
Position / Name / Team / Total
1 Jarno Mattila / O.P. Hurricanes / 23
2 Petri Posio / Aisti Revolution / 17
3 Erkki Miinala / Old Power / 15
4 Joni Ylönen / O.P. Hurricanes / 14
5 Ville Montonen / Aisti Revolution / 13
6 Miika Honkanen / Aisti Sport / 11
7 Markus Tihumäki / Aisti Sport / 10
8 Eetu Eronen / Old Power / 6
9 Tomi Vesalainen / Aisti Sport / 5
9 Mikko Viittala / Old Power / 5
11 Oskari Nyström / Aisti Revolution / 1
1-Division
You can check out line-ups of the teams in 1-Division on the season 2020 – 2021 here
There became some sad news just a couple of weeks before the 1st stage of the season, because one of the biggest front runner on this 1-Division season O.P. Flying Ducks had to cancel its participation to the 1st stage due the travel and quarantine restrictions for the corona virus. O.P. Flying Ducks can continue in the league, but they defeated all their games at the 1st stage by 10-0 mercy.
Nääsvil Tampere made a big surprise; they celebrated the victory of the 1st stage by beating even the big favourites O.P. Juniors and O.P. Gladiators during the weekend. O.P. Gladiators performed extremely strong offensive, but their team defence didn’t work as well as offensive. Finally they suffered only a loss against Nääsvil Tampere and were on the 2nd place after the tournament.
O.P. Juniors had played last 1,5 years without any losses in 1-Division, but Nääsvil Tampere broke the spell in late afternoon on Saturday 3rd October. Very experienced team Näpäjä XX managed to take only one victory during the weekend and Aisti Open didn’t reach for the points at the 1st stage except 10-0 mercy win against O.P. Flying Ducks, but the team can be very delighted of their debutants 13-year-old Eemi Utriainen (who made even seven goals in the tournament) and 14-year-old Solina Rosti.
The top scorer of the 1st stage came from O.P. Gladiators, a former Finland men’s national team coach Kevin Collet made 21 goals followed by Konsta Saloniemi from Nääsvil Tampere with 19 goals and a living goalball legend in Finland Jorma Kivinen from O.P. Gladiators with 15 goals.
Results
Saturday 3rd October 2020
Time / Game Number / Home Team / Away Team / Result (Half Time)
11.50 1 Aisti Open – O.P. Gladiators 8-18 (7-13)
Scorers / Aisti: #9 Aittola 5, #6 Utriainen 2, #3 Toivola 1
Scorers / Gladiators: #7 Collet 8, #2 Hauskanen 5, #3 Kivinen 5
12.45 2 Näpäjä XX – Nääsvil Tampere 4-10 (1-3)
Scorers / Näpäjä: #2 Lehtola 2, #3 Heikkinen 2
Scorers / Nääsvil: #9 Saloniemi 9, #7 Leppänen 1
14.50 3 O.P. Juniors – Aisti Open 11-3 (4-1)
Scorers / Juniors: #5 Kauppila 4, #3 Luiro 3, #2 Milanovic 2, #1 Penttinen 1, #6 Kuusela 1
Scorers / Aisti: #6 Utriainen 1, #7 Tayyebi 1, #9 Aittola 1
16.40 4 O.P. Gladiators – Näpäjä XX 15-5 (10-3)
Scorers / Gladiators: #3 Kivinen 6, #7 Collet 5, #2 Hauskanen 4
Scorers / Näpäjä: #2 Lehtola 2, #3 Heikkinen 2, #5 Laamanen 1
17.35 5 Nääsvil Tampere – O.P. Juniors 6-5 (2-2)
Scorers / Nääsvil: #7 Leppänen 4, #9 Saloniemi 2
Scorers / Juniors: #2 Milanovic 3, #3 Luiro 1, #5 Kauppila 1
Sunday 4th October 2020
9.30 6 Aisti Open – Näpäjä XX 7-8 (3-4)
Scorers / Aisti: #9 Aittola 4, #6 Utriainen 3
Scorers / Näpäjä: #3 Heikkinen 3, #5 Laamanen 2, #8 Nyström 2, #2 Lehtola 1
10.25 7 O.P. Gladiators – Nääsvil Tampere 8-14 (4-6)
Scorers / Gladiators: #2 Hauskanen 3, #3 Kivinen 3, #7 Collet 2
Scorers / Nääsvil: #7 Leppänen 6, #9 Saloniemi 4, #3 Grönroos 3, Own Goal 1
11.20 8 Näpäjä XX – O.P. Juniors 5-11 (3-9)
Scorers / Näpäjä: #2 Lehtola 2, #8 Nyström 2, #5 Laamanen 1
Scorers / Juniors: #2 Milanovic 4, #5 Kauppila 4, #3 Luiro 2, #6 Kuusela 1
12.15 9 Nääsvil Tampere – Aisti Open 8-6 (5-3)
Scorers / Nääsvil: #9 Saloniemi 4, #7 Leppänen 3, #8 Linnas 1
Scorers / Aisti: #9 Aittola 4, #6 Utriainen 1, #7 Tayyebi 1
13.10 10 O.P. Juniors – O.P. Gladiators 4-9 (0-2)
Scorers / Juniors: #6 Kuusela 2, #1 Penttinen 1, #3 Luiro 1
Scorers / Gladiators: #7 Collet 6, #2 Hauskanen 2, #3 Kivinen 1
Standings in 1-Division after the 1st stage
Position / Team / Games / Wins / Ties / Losses / Made-Missed Goals / Goal Difference / Points
- Nääsvil Tampere / 5 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 48-23 / +25 / 15
- O.P. Gladiators / 5 / 4 / 0 / 1 / 60-31 / +29 / 9
- O.P. Juniors / 5 / 3 / 0 / 2 / 41-23 / +18 / 9
- Näpäjä XX / 5 / 2 / 0 / 3 / 32-43 / -11 / 6
- Aisti Open / 5 / 1 / 0 / 4 / 34-45 / -11 / 3
- O.P. Flying Ducks / 5 / 0 / 0 / 5 / 0-50 / -50 / 0
Scorers in 1-Division after the 1st stage
Position / Name / Team / Total
1 Kevin Collet / O.P. Gladiators / 21
2 Konsta Saloniemi / Nääsvil Tampere / 19
3 Jorma Kivinen / O.P. Gladiators / 15
4 Aleksi Aittola / Aisti Open / 14
4 Tommi Hauskanen / O.P. Gladiators / 14
4 Krista Leppänen / Nääsvil Tampere / 14
7 Iida Kauppila – / O.P. Juniors / 9
7 Ibrahim Milanovic / O.P. Juniors / 9
9 Sami Heikkinen / Näpäjä XX / 7
9 Jarmo Lehtola / Näpäjä XX / 7
9 Arttu Luiro / O.P. Juniors / 7
9 Eemi Utriainen / Aisti Open / 7
13 Raisa Kuusela / O.P. Juniors / 4
13 Kaj Laamanen / Näpäjä XX / 4
13 Aleksi Nyström / Näpäjä XX / 4
16 Miina Grönroos / Nääsvil Tampere / 3
17 Heikki Penttinen / O.P. Juniors / 2
18 Azra Tayyebi / Aisti Open / 2
19 Krister Linnas / Nääsvil Tampere / 1
19 Henriikka Toivola / Aisti Open / 1